


they won’t take you away

by seaofolives



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Canon Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Flashbacks, Gen, POV Gladiolus Amicitia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27938197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seaofolives/pseuds/seaofolives
Summary: In the darkness, everything was real and nothing. The source of his fear, the chill in his breath, the sound of footsteps chasing after them.Stay close to me,the voice inside him rasped, near sobbing.Iʼll never let them—The sound of a tree crashing startled Noctis, jumping back against Ignis and Prompto who cried for him. In the moonless light, he caught the shape of a leafless branch, rising like a vengeful hand. Noctisʼ name became a sound through his chest, rain in the wind whipping in his face as he charged. The earth in his mouth, tears down his face.You wonʼt take him from me!!A desperate promise, a sworn plea as he stood before his liege, arms stretched sideways to protect him.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: Gladio Week





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> written for gladio week 2020!

“Ooh, I know!” Prompto chirruped with a hop, then whirled backwards to face them all. It seemed misplaced, his cheerful voice in the middle of a forest past midnight, but Gladio would take it any day over the crunch of dead leaves and the creepy sound of daemons being born from the darkness. “Let’s play a game called: _Before the end, thereʼs something Iʼve got to get off my chest._ ” 

“What kind of a game title is that?” Gladio laughed. 

“A confession game?” Ignis ventured with his quiet voice, adjusting his glasses. 

“If itʼs like _Never Have I Ever_ , I donʼt wanna play it,” Noctis mumbled like a sulking kid between his two guardians, still checking his black shirt by the glow of his clip light and then running his fingers over it. 

“Noct, pay attention to where you are stepping.” 

“I know,” Noctis tutted and scowled at his advisor. “One of those stupid imps headbutted me and I think there was snot on its nose.” 

“Most undesirable,” Ignis agreed with a little sigh. “Let’s take a look at it back in camp.” 

“Ha, least weʼre gonna get paid, Noct.” Gladio laid a heavy hand on his kingʼs shoulder, giving him a little shake. “You can use the money from the tipster to buy a new shirt.” 

“I like this shirt,” Noctis muttered. 

“Well,” Gladio turned to the leader of their troop, still marching backwards, with a signaling nod. “How dʼyou play that game?” 

“Mm, itʼs simple!” Prompto replied, never one to lose heart just because the king said no. “We say the title, and then we have to come up with a really embarrassing or too-real confession!” 

“For serious?” Noctis hissed at his best friend from the back. 

“Mhm!” Prompto nodded, bouncing on his feet. Still not looking where they were going. Should have figured as much. 

“Prompto.” With a little sharpness on his voice, Gladio gestured for him finally to turn around. 

“Ah!” So Prompto did, now facing the right direction. “But, at least itʼll keep us awake until we make it to the Regalia, right?” 

“Why donʼt you start, Prompto?” 

“Okay,” Prompto replied easily to Ignisʼ suggestion, then let out a long humming note. “Before the end, thereʼs something Iʼve got to get off my chest. Hmm…” Silence for a few seconds… “Just once…Iʼd _really_ like to try and reel in a monster!” 

“You serious?” Noctis laughed. 

“Seriously serious!” Prompto chirped, arms crossed over his head. Perfectly carefree despite the time of the night—or day, seeing as the clock had officially ticked past 12. “Cʼmon! You do it all the time so Iʼm like,” he growled, “mmm, I wonder what it feels like?!” 

“Well, I guess we know what weʼre doing tomorrow.” Noctis grinned at both his guardians. 

“We shouldnʼt tarry too long in fulfilling the next hunt,” Ignis advised snappily. 

“And weʼre not on a field trip, we gotta get your royalness to Altissia soon as we can,” Gladio reminded him quickly after. 

“Well, I bet thereʼs good fishing in Altissia, anyway.” Noctis wasnʼt ready to drop his good mood. 

“Oooh, that sounds good,” Prompto agreed. “Well, thatʼs me! How about you, Noct?” 

“Uh, me? Hmm…” Noctis got to thinking, then. In the meantime, Gladio observed their surroundings and felt the dark ground with his boot, tilting his led light towards his toes. 

“Prompto.” Gladio beckoned him, waiting for him to hurry over before he directed his cheerful attention near the root of a tree. There was a fresh branch literally planted into its soil, tilted towards the right. On the bark close to it was a three-pronged fork, freshly carved. 

“Oh!” Prompto giggled nervously, scratching his cheek. “W, wonder where that came from…” 

Gladio sighed. “This is why I keep reminding ya to pay attention to your surroundings even when weʼre having a good time. Especially now that itʼs late, we donʼt have time to be retracing our steps.” He gestured for a dagger from Ignis who passed it to him hilt first. “Iʼll take the lead from hereon. Watch and learn again.” 

“Y, yes, Sir!” Prompto saluted. 

“Thanks for the trouble, Gladio.” Even as Gladio carved off the drawing and flung the branch off to a different direction, he could hear Noctis snickering. “I feel much better now.” 

“Noct, thatʼs mean even coming from you,” Prompto grumbled. 

“I seem to recall that our next mark is spotted during the day,” Ignis chuckled. Gladio banished the blade into the crystals and gestured the threesome to follow him down the new path. “Perhaps you can try again, then.” 

“Uh, sure!” Prompto said. “Iʼll do better this time.” 

“Ah, I got it,” Noctis began, apropos of nothing. “Before the end, thereʼs something Iʼve got to get off my chest: I really liked last nightʼs dinner.” 

“Wha— _Noct?!_ ” Prompto screeched. 

“Hey, this is bad. Werenʼt there veggies last night?” Gladio glanced behind him to catch Ignis grasping the king by the arm and feeling his forehead with his gloved hand. “Ignis, what do you think?” 

“Iʼm afraid Noct seems to have a low-grade fever,” was Ignis’ diagnosis, a report made with a worried tone. “Which is probably the cause of his delirium and sudden surge of kindness—” 

“Shut up!” Noctis snapped and hissed at his advisor who pulled his hand back with a look of amusement as he reached to swat it off. Gladio and Prompto cracked up and met in a fist bump. “Ugh, this is why I hate playing these games!” 

“Perhaps if youʼd make it a habit to be more honest with us, then we wouldnʼt be teasing you so,” were Ignisʼ words of wisdom, spoken with a victorious look about him. “In any case, itʼs just us.” 

“You’re not giving me any incentive,” Noctis countered. “Well, what about you?” 

Ignis chuckled deeply. “Mine is simple. Before the end, thereʼs something Iʼve got to get off my chest: I could really use a cup of Ebony right now.” 

“Ugh, Ignis!” 

“Not the rules, Ignis,” Gladio rejoined Noctis and Prompto, keeping his eyes forward and upward, though there wasnʼt much to see beyond the silhouette of leaves against the deep, starry sky, and the sliver of moon partially obscured by the canopies. “Itʼs gotta be embarrassing, or _really_ heartfelt!” He thumped his chest for that. 

“Bet Gladio can show you up,” Noctis cackled, the sound of his hand clapping Ignis sharp in the silence. “Eh, Gladio?” 

“That a challenge, Noct?” Gladio smirked, stopping to inspect another way marker which he dismantled before he led them to another turn. A few steps up ahead, the white light of electricity shone past the shapeless shadows of foliage. 

“Ah, the Regalia!” Prompto announced. 

“See?” Gladio looked past his shoulder to catch his friendsʼ delighted faces and wink at them. “Easier than cup noodles.”

“Just as expected of you, Gladio,” Ignis congratulated him with a little applause. 

To which Gladio bowed with a curtsying arm. “Next time, you do it again, Prompto.” He started down the path. 

“Next time, Iʼll definitely do it!” Prompto vowed. 

“You better,” Noctis started laughing. “Or there might never be a next time again!” 

“In more ways than one.” A chilling reminder from Ignis. “In any case, now seems to be a good time to finish that sentence, Gladio. Since weʼre already almost at the end of the night…” 

“Hey, I guess youʼre right,” Gladio mused, redirecting his attention to the clear night. “How did that go?” he asked the susurrus of leaves. “Before—” 

“Before the end, thereʼs something—” 

Gladio hissed Prompto into silence, hand raised where everyone could see him. In the moonless light, the shadowed eaves made fools of them all, making no discernible shape except for the flash of his imaginations. A slither of vines, the sway of…something living. “Somethingʼs out there.” Half a gasp. The crunch of leaves under his foot seemed too loud and made-up when played against the whispering in the dark. 

“Noct,” he heard Ignisʼ voice as he stepped closer to the shadows along the side, “do you feel cold?” 

“No. Do you?” 

“Not me, either.” Prompto. 

“How curious.” Ignis. “So why are the leaves rustling when thereʼs no wind—” 

“Itʼs no damn rustling,” Gladio growled when he caught the grunt and snap of a branch, the rapid beats in his chest that seemed to match the rolling thumps overhead. “What the hellʼs she doing here?” 

“Gladio—” 

“Is that…thunder?” Prompto squeaked. 

“Get to the car!” Gladio growled suddenly, urgently, picking up his greatsword from the crystals, heart racing. “Ignis—!” 

“Understood.” Ignisʼ polearm flashed in the darkness as he passed Gladio where he stood. “Noct, stay close to me.” 

“Gladio, Ignis, whatʼs happening?!” 

“Prompto.” Gladio nodded to their gunner running after their king. “Take the lead! Anything swings down, shoot it on its face.” 

“S, swings down?!” 

“Literally, _now go!_ ” 

“R, roger that!!” 

Gladio brought up the rear as soon as his friends had fallen into formation. Noctis still wasnʼt keen to follow blindly, gauging from his demands of Ignis, but his sword was already out, at least, and he was running.

And so were the leaves, resembling the sound of ghosts giggling as it chased after them. Gladio caught his heart in his throat, the shade of movement overhead, a thick branch groaning, striking off to his side to block off the stars. Gone before he wondered if what heʼd seen was real. 

Or was it just himself? In the darkness, everything was real and nothing. The source of his fear, the chill in his breath, the sound of footsteps chasing after them. 

_Stay close to me,_ the voice inside him rasped, near sobbing. _Iʼll never let them—_

The sound of a tree crashing startled Noctis, jumping back against Ignis and Prompto who cried for him. In the moonless light, he caught the shape of a leafless branch, rising like a vengeful hand. Noctisʼ name became a sound through his chest, rain in the wind whipping in his face as he charged. The earth in his mouth, tears down his face. 

_You wonʼt take him from me!!_ A desperate promise, a sworn plea as he stood before his liege, arms stretched sideways to protect him. 

Something warm spattered on his face, stealing his gasp. His sentinel, once so brave and mighty faltered like a broken doll. Against the moonless night, he caught the glint of something wicked, the promise of death as she laughed like a thousand hissing tongues. 

_No!!!_

Gladio came to with a deep gasp of life, as if heʼd been drowning until someone had breathed new air in him. There was daylight through the window slats, warm air and a soft bed beneath him—

“Gladio?” 

Ignis was the first to catch onto him, and then Noctis and Prompto were stumbling to his bedside, racing Ignis who had warned them to be careful. 

“Gladio!” Noctis roared to his face, baring his teeth, close enough that he must be on his knees. “What the hell was that…donʼt you _ever_ do that again! Donʼt even dare!!” 

“Whut?” Gladio stammered, stunned by all the shouting. He looked up to Ignis who looked severely on him, putting his glasses back on his eyes. “Whatʼs…” 

“We thought you were dead,” Prompto sniffled, not hiding the tears on his freckled cheeks. “Itʼs like something came out of nowhere and then you were jumping in to protect Noct and then you fell just like that! We had to drag you back to the car before Ignis could heal you.” He wiped his arm on his eyes. “And then you didnʼt wake up until now!” 

There was so much drama in this room, flowing from his friends that Gladio didnʼt know what to do with it. So he just laughed, first a cough and then a steady beat that put a painful pressure on his tummy. “You saps,” he chuckled, starting to get up. Ignis laid a hand on his bare shoulder. “The hell are ya—” 

He stopped and grunted when a stinging bruise pulsed from his abdomen. Gladio almost fell back to his pillow until he caught sight of the slash marks that filled his stomach—four of them, the last shorter than the rest, running gory parallel lines like something…some _monster_ had just clawed him. _Gutting_ him. 

Gladio choked, heart pounding against his ribs. His flesh looked like it had stitched itself, and there was a ring of bruises that surrounded his injury. It didnʼt look like a normal wound and he knew, from a handful of experiences, that in days this would fade out into nothing. As if it never existed. 

_This is the price,_ he thought suddenly. _This is my price to pay to be Noctʼs Shield. For every one of their lives, one of mine._

“Move carefully, Gladio,” Ignis warned him gently. Gladio followed his hand when it pushed him back to his pillow, suddenly losing his fight. “You suffered quite the trauma. Noct, Prompto, perhaps it would be best if we gave him some space for now.” That hand started to depart from his shoulder. 

“Wait.” Gladio snatched it back. He waited until Ignis was looking at him before he asked him, “You got time?”

Ignis looked up to their king. “Noct—” 

“No!” Noctis roared in protest. “If youʼre staying, then Iʼm staying. Heʼs not only your friend! Prompto,” he whipped to his wide-eyed best friend, “you, too. We wonʼt go anywhere!” 

“Hey, listen to me,” Gladio called his kingʼs attention, inviting a terrible and pale frown when he faced him. “I ainʼt just gonna keel over and die, okay? Remember?” He pointed to the scar along his forehead, striking through the one leading downwards to his cheek. “Iʼm stronger than this. It ainʼt my time yet.” 

“What wonʼt you tell me?” Noctis hissed. 

“Later.” Gladio clapped him on his shoulder. “I promise.” He nodded to the door. “Now go get me that root beer and some chow. Canʼt talk without snacks, yeah?”

“You promise,” Noctis reminded him. 

Gladio saluted him. “On my word and honor as your Shield.” 

“Prompto,” Ignis called the younger manʼs attention. “Why donʼt you two check back in the market? Perhaps those roots we ordered have finally arrived. The sooner we can get started with the soup, the better.” 

“O, okay.” Prompto nodded, eyes still red. “Noct?” 

“Yeah.” Despite his acquiescence, Noctis made it clear by his glower that he still wasnʼt happy with this resolution. But at least it got him to his feet. “Ignis.” 

Ignis bowed to him. “Gladio will be safe in my care.” 

And then he and Prompto were finally out of the room, leaving Gladio alone with the calmest man of the four of them. It was better this way—with less nerves ringing and screaming at him, he could finally get to the bottom of what happened that night. 

“How long was I out?” he began, facing Ignis squarely who took his place on his bedside. 

“Nearly 12 hours,” Ignis answered, his voice quiet…quieter than usual. Now that their king and Prompto were out, after all, he could betray a little bit more of his deeper emotions. “Weʼre in Lestallum, presently.” 

Gladio nodded, feeling the weight of his…accident press heavily on his chest. “And… you used a Phoenix Down?” 

“Yes.” Whispered. 

“That bad?” he croaked. “Did…did Noct see it?” 

Ignis nodded. “Iʼm afraid so. When you fell, he was the one who caught you. Prompto shot a flare, then, and that was when we all saw your state.” 

Gladio cursed under his breath, putting his hand on his eyes. 

“Noct was quite hysterical. Prompto had to take the wheel, there was no way we could have asked him to drive. Try not to get on his nerves for now.” 

“Ya think I can?” Gladio looked at him again. “Dammit, he shouldnʼt have seen me fall like that.” 

“Even as his Shield, you are only human and as humans, we are all fallible.” 

“Still couldʼve spared him the nightmare,” Gladio groaned. “And…you?” 

Ignisʼ brows quivered a bit. “Me?” 

Gladio tossed a hand to him. “Did I…scare ya, too?” 

A question that made Ignis’ expression darken. “What do you think?” he snarled. 

Gladio frowned at his response. “Sorry ‘bout that.” 

Ignis shook his head. “What matters now is that you are safe and sound.” His hand fell on his shoulder again. “And that you will recover.” 

“Count on it, Lord Strategist,” Gladio assured him. “This is just a one-off thing, I swear.” 

“Good. Be certain that it is.” Ignis rose. “Some water? You lost quite a lot of blood.” 

“Yeah,” Gladio said. He put his elbows on the mattress and started to push himself up slowly again. “Help me sit.” 

Ignis was instantly upon him, long fingers guiding his biceps, serving as his anchors while he shifted back against his headboard. “Gladio…that daemon that attacked you.” 

Gladio waited for him to finish his sentence while he arranged the quilt over his lap. 

“You knew it, didnʼt you?” Ignis asked, looking at him again. There was no use lying about it. 

“Yeah,” Gladio answered, nodding to those inquisitive eyes that pierced through, demanding for his full cooperation. “I know her.” 

“Her?” Ignisʼ brows furrowed. 

“They call her Echidna,” he revealed. “Mother of all daemons. Normally, you find her in caves, but sometimes…” 

“She comes out to the forest.” 

“Yeah,” Gladio said. “I just…I just didnʼt expect her to come out there, last night.” 

“How did you know her?” The susurrus of laughing leaves, those empty eyes in the dark. 

“Research, mostly.” Gladio shrugged. “Sorry, could I get that water now?” 

“Certainly.” Ignis straightened up, went around the bed for the small lounge set towards the door. “Gladio,” he said suddenly, stopping by his feet, “Before the end, thereʼs something Iʼve got to get off my chest.” 

“Yeah?” Gladio prompted him after a beat. 

With a soft glare to his direction, Ignis warned him, “Donʼt you ever do that to us again. If we esteem to overthrow the empire and reclaim whatʼs ours, I will need you to stay alive for us, Gladio. The _king_ needs you alive. I had feared the worst and I never want to go through that again. Do you understand, Amicitia?” As if he gave Gladio any options to choose from. 

At the very least, he hoped he could settle him with a smile. “Yeah. Itʼs why Iʼm still around, right?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so for those curious, echidna is actually a recurring enemy in the ff franchise! you can find out more about her [here](https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Echidna)!

To appease his friends, especially the king who extracted several promises of the self-preserving nature from him (a conflict of interests where it comes to his duty but that would be a bridge for Future Gladio to burn), Gladio made a show of resting completely and obediently in his room. He never left the bed except for the bathroom, spent the rest of the day napping and reading and wouldnʼt even stretch his arms and his legs unless his friends were absent. 

Ignis had nearly caught him in the act when he returned from the lobby where he settled their bill. He stepped through the door with his phone on his ear, waving at Gladio who pretended that he, too, was waving and that he hadnʼt been pulling his elbow behind his head. “Yes, heʼs still awake,” Ignis told the other line. “Very well, weʼll wait for you.” After that, he ended the call. 

“Noct and Prompto?” 

“Yes,” Ignis revealed, taking his place next to Gladio on his bed. “It seems they found something noteworthy. How are you feeling tonight?” 

“I ainʼt hurting if thatʼs what youʼre asking.” It was the least eager way Gladio could answer without pushing any buttons. 

Ignis accepted it with a nod, at least. “Let me see your wound.” He pulled his shirt up, letting Gladio hold onto the hem while he pressed lightly on the lines of his bruises, then ran his gloved thumb over the faint bumps of his fading scar. “Good. Youʼre out of danger, at least. Perhaps we ought to forego any late night hunts for now.” 

“Thought Noct was responsible for the welfare of his people?” Gladio raised a brow. “These daemons ainʼt gonna kill themselves.” 

“In time, Gladio.” That was a vague promise, if Gladio knew of any. They both turned to the door to see Prompto peeking through the crack. Ignis waved him over. “Your wound has healed but you still need to recover your strength.” 

A wide smile split Promptoʼs face open and he danced into the room, waving to their patient. Noctis followed closely behind him with a shallower, lankier version of his greeting. “Doing okay?” the cheerier man lilted. 

Gladio flashed him a smile and a thumb up to show for it. 

“Does it still hurt?” Noctis asked in a quieter voice, putting himself at the foot of the bed facing Ignis, leaving the space across him for Prompto. 

“Nah.” Gladio patted his stomach under his tank top. “If I donʼt see it, I might forget what happened. So,” he pulled himself forward, elbows on his lap, “whatʼs gotten your interests?” 

“A hunt!” Prompto announced while Noctis produced his phone and swept through the screen. “We didnʼt take it yet, though, we wanted to show it to you guys first.” 

“If this is a daemon, perhaps it might not be unwise to let the hunters take care of it for the time being.” Count on Ignis not to delay from putting out his thoughts. 

“Itʼs not just any daemon, though.” Noctis laid out his phone next to Gladioʼs knee. One look at the wanted poster was all he needed to recognize the mark. 

Gladio snatched it from the bed and stared closely at the vague shape of a corpse dangling from the top of the page. “Shit, itʼs her,” he hissed, scanning wildly for the other details in the poster. Target: Echidna. Last seen at Secullam Pass at night. Bounty: upper five digits… 

“Enough to pay for food and lodgings for two weeks…” he mumbled, putting down the phone, feeling a little winded. As if this was a coincidence that was out to get him specifically. Was it them? Calling him from the grave, demanding vengeance by his blood-stained hands? They who started this because of him…him who started it all by his existence. Was his mortal wound a message from the dead, tucked under the cover of duty and an accident? 

“Guess people really want her dead.” Noctis crossed his arms. So Gladio said. 

“Secullam Pass,” Prompto mused, looking at each of them in turn. “We were there last night, werenʼt we?” 

“Indeed.” Ignis pushed his glasses. “A most unfortunate time.” 

“Unless someone takes care of this monstress, there wonʼt be a fortunate time to go traipsing along those woods.” Gladio passed Noctisʼ phone back to him. “Whoʼs got the map?” 

“Ah, Ignis.” Prompto jumped to his feet, spinning in one complete circle before he stumbled to the dark luggage standing at the other corner of the room. “Donʼt you have it?” 

“Not there.” Ignis pointed to the closet next to it. Prompto straightened up to open the doors. “Look inside the black bag—” 

“Got it!” Prompto let the doors swing shut on their own, handing the booklet to Gladio who flipped it towards the middle. He took his place back on the bed, peering closely at the pages. 

Gladio finally found himself at the lower left quadrant of Duscae where a sliding finger located _Secullam Pass_. “If sheʼs here…” His eyes searched its nearby landmarks, finger moving up and down until finally, it landed upon _Daurell Caverns._ “She mustʼve come from here.” 

“Daurell Caverns?” Noctis repeated, leaning closer with the others. 

“Sheʼs a cave dweller,” Gladio explained, marking the spot with one finger and then locating the woods with another. “So she should have been down there. Unless…” 

“Unless something’s brought her out of there.” Noctis nodded. A thought which brought a secret shudder up Gladioʼs back. “Donʼt care what it is, I wanna stop her.” 

“Noct—” 

“She almost got one of us,” Noctis spat out to silence Ignisʼ protest. “I wanna pay her back for what she did and I wanna make sure she never gets to do that again.” 

“Noct,” Ignis repeated himself, maintaining his tempered tone. “I understand that the blow she has dealt us is quite personal but I think vengeance is ill-advised at this point in time. Gladio still needs to recuperate his strength—” 

“Give me until tomorrow.” 

All eyes whipped to Gladio, so he looked at them each. “We can go tomorrow night, if you want,” he went on. If this were a message to him then he better send a reply and soon. 

Ignis sighed, shifting closer. “Gladio—” 

“Think about the timing, Ignis,” Gladio stopped him. “She wouldnʼt be out there if there wasnʼt something stopping her from going back in and you ask me, Iʼd much rather fight her outside than in her lair. Besides, she tried to eat Noct.” He shook his head, a little surprised by the words coming out of his mouth. “What kinda Shield would I be if I let her get away with that?” 

“What kinda King would I be if I just let her cut my Shield like that?” Noctis jumped in once he found his opening to attack—just as his Shield had taught him. Ignisʼ attention was split between the both of them. Divide and conquer. “Cʼmon, you know heʼs right! She took us by surprise last night but this time weʼll come prepared. Prompto,” he turned to his best friend, “you still got flares, right?” 

“Iʼll get some more tomorrow,” Prompto piped up. Eager to please? Or eager to get his hands on some avenging, too? 

“I know this daemon, Ignis,” Gladio drew that rigid frown towards him again. He faced it without flinching. “She wonʼt take us blindly this time. Trust me on this.” 

“Hey,” Noctis protested. “Youʼre not the only one going out there to hunt, right?” 

Gladio glanced at him and smirked at his high brow. “Just keepinʼ you on your toes, King.” 

“So itʼs set?” Prompto looked at them all. 

“Unfortunately, since we serve a democratic king,” Ignis sighed, crossing his arms, “the minority has no choice but to follow through.” 

“All right!” 

“Thanks, Ignis.” Noctis smiled, a brief laughter bubbling inside his chest when he raised his hand and clasped Ignis for a firm grip. “Weʼre gonna win this. Prompto!” He waved his phone. “Let’s go tell that tipster weʼre in.” 

“Okay!” 

“Noct, leave that for tomorrow,” Ignis groaned. “Itʼs late. You havenʼt had much sleep last night either.” 

“Itʼs fine, weʼll do it now so we get to plan all day tomorrow,” was Noctisʼ attempt to assuage his advisor even as he got up. “Weʼll go straight to bed after this.” At least that was what he said. 

Prompto waved to the both of them on their way out the door, “Goodnight, you two!” 

“Yeah,” Gladio raised his own hand, “see you tomorrow.” 

As soon as the door had shut, Ignis got up himself. “And time for you to sleep, as well. You have much resting to catch up on.” 

“Hey, Ignis?” Gladio tilted himself slightly so that they could face each other. “Sorry we keep cutting you off like that.” Something he’d done on purpose, for his own selfish errand. “And…thanks for letting us take this.” 

For the seconds that followed, Ignis only regarded him with a silent look. 

Then he took his seat again close to him, and said with equal quietness, “If you are sincere about your words, then tell me something.” 

“What?” 

“Why?” Ignis asked him, those green eyes searching him. “Why do you want this hunt so bad? Is it to prove yourself as a Shield? Is it revenge for that blow on your pride? How did you come to know of Echidna before we came out here to Duscae?” He didnʼt know it yet—but he was right on the mark with those questions. 

Gladioʼs eyes fell to his lap, as if to look at the part where heʼd almost been gotten. To match those screams that played again in his head, putting the salt of his tears and the iron taste back in his mouth. 

“Because…I know her,” he whispered, facing Ignis again to show him his honesty, that he was hiding nothing. “She and I…we got a history together.” Ignis’ eyes turned wide at his revelation. “Sheʼs not my ex if thatʼs what youʼre worried about,” he chuckled, just to try to keep things light. “But…I saw firsthand how dangerous she is.” 

“When?” 

“I was still a kid, then,” Gladio told him. “It was a long time ago so I thought she was gone but…well, now we know where she is.” He shrugged. “Now we can stop her for good. As Noctʼs Shield, I gotta stop her for good, to protect Noct and help him protect his people.” Was it bad that he kept waving the kingʼs name like some skip-the-line ticket? Skip-the-explanation ticket? 

Ignis exhaled through his nose. “Would that you made an uncompelling argument…” 

“I wouldnʼt drag you in here if I didnʼt think it was important.” Gladio ventured a smile, though it flickered at best. “Least I ainʼt doing this on my own, eh?” Like he did with Gilgamesh. 

Ignis snorted. “I should stop feeding you that Four Herbs Soup. Because youʼre suddenly making a lot of sense.” Gladio snickered at that jab, beaming brightly. “Does Noct know about your history with Echidna?” 

He shook his head. “Aside from me…youʼre the only other person whoʼs alive who knows about this.” Ignisʼ brows quivered slightly to pinch. “Would appreciate it if you kept this between you and me for now, too. Iʼll tell Noct and Prompto about it soon but…let me do it on my own time.” This was hardly the first agreement of this nature they ever had, both being retainers who were now the kingʼs sole guardians, as well. 

It would be strange, then, for neither of them to have the otherʼs explicit trust. “Of course,” Ignis assured him, nodding. “You can count on me for that.”


	3. Chapter 3

“S, so…h, here we are,” Prompto stammered. “Back where it all started…”

In the darkness, under the lightless skies, that part of the forest of Secullam Pass certainly looked exactly as theyʼd left it. Heavy canopies, wet earth clinging to their nostrils, the crunch of dead leaves under their shoes. Nothing was comforting despite its triggering familiarity, and that only added a weight to the air that wasnʼt there the first time. Then again, theyʼd been blissfully unaware of what had been lurking out there before. Now, theyʼd gone back like fools exactly for that reason, and everything seemed so much more treacherous and grave with that knowledge alone. 

“Right, everyone, stick closely to Ignisʼ plan,” Gladio rumbled low after Prompto, keeping a conscious mind on his breathing, his heartbeat. “Things go well, weʼll be back at Lestallum for some midnight skewers.” 

“Noct,” Ignis signaled him. 

“Ready, Ignis. Here I go.” Up ahead, at the front, Gladio saw Noctisʼ light progressing farther away from Ignis who followed after some paces had separated them. Gladio and Prompto marched behind them, their speed unchanged. 

That was their plan of attack—Noctis would draw the daemonʼs attention as bait, then pull back or warp-out on first strike. Ignis would then jump in to guard him while Gladio engaged the daemon. As for Prompto at the very back, he was their firepower, their emergency plan and their back-up—if things went according to plan, he was to focus on Echidna and buy Ignis and Noctis some time to join the fight. If, for whatever reason, it didnʼt, he would provide them, and more importantly Noctis, cover to regroup and escape if they had to. In other words, much of the success of the plan rested on his skinny shoulders. 

“Prompto, you got a clear view of Noctʼs light?” Gladio reconfirmed their status. He wasnʼt usually so talkative but gods damn… 

Gods damn, he had to focus. Or else—

“A perfect 20/20!” Prompto declared cheerfully. Bless him. “Warm, yellow light, right?” For that hunt, they agreed to buy a new flashlight specifically for Noctis to make him easier to spot among their troop. 

“Yeah, just donʼt forget itʼs not for target-shooting,” the bait king warned him. 

Deeper still they went, keeping wary eyes around their surroundings to keep their heads clear. If someone were to ask Gladio right now, he would say this could be up there as the worst part of a daemon hunt—the tension, the silence, the waiting and the surprise. How vulnerable this left them not just to their mark but also to the other daemons that might get it in their heads to join the party. 

Prompto gave a little cry when they heard the deep groan of the earth which shook under their feet, as if something was forcing itself through. 

“Everyone, get low!” Ignis hissed, crouching with his friends in perfect synchronicity. “Who has eyes on it?” 

“I do. Eight oʼclock,” Gladio shared lowly. From the deep blackness, he caught the flash of red cut through the air, as though it was butter to that fiery cleaver. Several other shapes blossomed around the Red Giant, glowing purple in the night. “Looks like an RG and some Thunder Bombs out for a walk.” 

“Not towards us, I hope!” Prompto winced. 

“Dammit, we donʼt need this,” Noctis hissed. 

“I see them,” Ignis announced. “Theyʼre moving further away…” 

Prompto whistled out in a full whisper. 

Seconds passed in silence, neither of them rising an inch higher from the ground. 

It wasnʼt until the shape of those meddling daemons had blended back into the darkness that Gladio felt like he could start breathing again. “Coast is clear.” He got up to his feet, as soundlessly as the rest of his friends. “Noct?” This was going to be a long night. 

“Yup,” the king responded. “Still right here. Everyone else okay?” 

They each sounded off reassurances in their own ways, joined by the leaves that seemed to giggle at their overcautious actions. A spectator hiding in the shadows, rolling like thunder in its amusement. 

So close! “Sheʼs here,” Gladio snarled, sword materializing in his hand as he tried to follow the sounds of the daemoness, leading him around in circles. The music she danced to were the drum beats in his chest, the louder susurrus of the forest and the groan and snap of wood, each following the other in a frustrating loop. Fuck. Just like before. 

“She knows weʼre looking for her,” was Ignisʼ conclusion. 

“So letʼs show her our weakness,” Gladio snarled, clammy grip tight around his pommel. “Ignis, get to Noct now!” His voice broke. If Echidna ever realized that Noctis was the most valuable of them all, then there was a chance she would make her first appearance with the king. 

It was what they agreed upon but the moment he blurted it out, he was already bolting for Noctis to save him from this terrible plan. Heart in his throat, wind cold, rain spitting—

 _You wonʼt—!!_

A flash of green, swinging like a pendulum in Ignisʼ light, told them they were right—but she moved with a swiftness that Gladio seemed to have witnessed only for the first time. _Fuck,_ he cried, nearly tripping in his legs. 

“ _Take cover!_ ” He was shouting before he even knew what was happening—a flash of blue shoved Ignis to the ground as the screech of rocks ripped through the air, something struck the wood with a loud _bang!_ and the rolling movements stopped suddenly. Somehow he had arrived at the king and his advisor and soon, he was leaping on Noctisʼ shoulder and swinging his great sword to his left shoulder with an earth shattering roar. Something stubborn caught the tip of his blade. 

“I see her!!” Prompto screeched before the fire from his guns rattled in an angry march. A thousand voices let out a unified hiss that sounded more like a cry by the time Gladio had hit the ground and rolled back onto his feet. Something was dangling near Promptoʼs light, a pair of branches attached to its trunk resembling sharp, bony phalanges. Prompto let out a scream. 

_Gladiolus!!_

“Prompto!!” Ignis yelled back. The air slapped into itself, an illusory blue light materializing into Noctis who roared and swung his greatsword down onto the trunk. 

He landed in a heap with a curse through his lips, pushing himself up to his knees. The shadow was gone. “Nearly got her!” 

“Noct!” Ignis called to him as he and Gladio came to his side and pulled him up. “Are you all right?” As soon as he saw no blood or wound on either of his friends, Gladio left him to his advisor and hurried to the gunner whipping wildly around his feet. 

“Yeah. Dammit, sheʼs really fast.” 

“Prompto!” Gladio gripped him by his shoulders, turning wide blue eyes on him. “You okay?” he rasped. 

Promptoʼs head vibrated upwards and downwards. “Sh, sh, sheʼs a snake!” he screeched, as if it was something he’d been dying to let out since the hunt began. “Sheʼs got a snake, it tried to eat me while I was trying to aim for her!!” 

“Did you get her?” Frantic eyes searched Prompto. No blood, no wound. 

“I, I think so? I mean I think—” The wood groaned. “—I saw bullet holes—” 

Gladio shoved Prompto to the ground while he whipped out his shield so that the swinging trunk slammed right onto the center of it. With his other hand, he summoned his sword and slashed at that flicker of green at the corner of his eye. 

The scream sounded like splitting rocks. Something plopped down Gladioʼs foot that made Prompto cry as he shuffled backwards, “Thatʼs the head!!” The air stirred like a storm. 

Gladio couldnʼt catch the wood smashing onto his chest, sending him off his feet and down a surprise ravine along the side of the trail. 

“Gladio!!” 

He landed on soft earth, rolled to his front and met the ground with another wet splash. Fuck. 

He pushed himself up to his feet with a deep groan, trying to wipe the dirt from his shaking hands with the soaked front of his jeans just as a tree threatened to crush him again. _Fuck!_ Gladio whirled just in time to meet the falling claw with the swing of his glaive, cutting it off from the elbow. 

She let out an enraged scream, then, her long body folding upwards to writhe, its sick green flesh leaking black fluid where she had been slashed and shot. She was nothing but skin and bones, sagging breasts and gaunt cheeks. Even her crimson hair, tangled and braided in mud and leaves, looked thin enough to fall off her half-bald skull if she shook with enough power. She was a corpse; a glorified carcass. 

A reminder of what death made of them—warm skin turned white, amber eyes bloodshot and distorted, her powder smell replaced forever by acrid earth. No more lullabies, no more innocence. 

_Mom…?_

_No!!!_

“ _Gladio!!_ ” 

Someone shoved him down to the earth just as a barrage of bullets shattered the night. Gladio wailed and winced at the white light flashing straight to his eyes, turning away and hiding himself behind his arm. 

“Are you all right?! Are you hurt!” Ignis started to pull him up. 

“Yeah!” Gladio let out, voice scraping at his throat as he hastened to catch up with Ignis’ unforgiving pace until he was on his feet. “G, gonna take more than that to take me down.” He forced out a snarl, wiping the mud off his eyes. “W, whereʼs Noct and Prompto!” 

He found the answer when one of them growled loudly, “Sheʼs gone again!!” 

“It may be for the better, Noct,” Ignis called to the king. It took some time for Gladio to realize they were picking their way down the ravine, the king still holding on to his ancestorʼs crossbow, Prompto with his gun. “Weʼll need to reconsider our plan carefully.” 

“Hey, what the hell just happened?” Noctis hissed at Gladio as soon as his Shield had arrived to help him down to the ground. “Itʼs not like you to just stare like that!” 

“You okay, Gladio?” Prompto stumbled to catch him by the sleeves of his jacket. “You look like youʼd seen a corpse!” 

“Might as well have,” Noctis muttered. Still couldnʼt wipe the disconcerted frown off his brows and lips. He was right, it wasnʼt like Gladio to get distracted from the fight just like that. 

“Uhh…” Gladio cleared his throat, racking his head for anything to say. “Itʼs nothing, I was just trying to look for her weak points, thatʼs all.” What a loaded excuse. Fuck this night. “But she looks like sheʼs bleeding a lot…” 

“And so will we if we donʼt pull back.” Ignis approached them, shoes squelching along the muddy trail. “Come along now, all of you. This is quite enough for one night. Gladio,” he gripped him by his biceps, clear eyes behind splotched glasses looking straight at him, “are you quite all right?” Theyʼd done a lot less than Gladio hoped to achieve. 

But he still had enough sense to agree with Ignisʼ decision. He needed to forget about what he saw, get a grip of himself again. Sooner rather than later. “Yeah…yeah, Iʼm fine. Youʼre right.” He nodded, throwing in his voice before Noctis and Prompto might protest. “Besides, I canʼt wait to take a shower,” he groaned, running the back of his forearm along his forehead as he led the way out of the forest. “Cʼmon, letʼs beat it.” 

“So weʼre just gonna leave?” Prompto squeaked. As if he hadnʼt been freaking out earlier. 

“Yeah,” Noctis said, the sound of his footsteps following his voice. “The sooner we get outta here, the sooner weʼll be back.”


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as he switched off the shower, Gladio immediately regretted the silence. Without anything else to listen to, nothing was going to stop his head from filling his ears with its orchestra. The crying and the screaming, the quiet voice, the burst of bullets and the cut of steel. Even when he stood facing the knobs that worked the silver showerhead, the old, chipped tiles of _The Leville_ served only as the backdrop of the macabre tragedy playing in his eyes. 

From the dark skies to the black earth, he saw again those hollow eyes looking back at him, a silverlit bow floating in the air…he did nothing. 

Until now, heʼd done nothing. _What kind of a Shield just stands there, doing nothing?_ he asked himself. _Didnʼt she die for you? Didnʼt they pay the price for your glory?_ Couldn’t even do the job he signed up for. _What kind of Shield lets his mind play tricks on him?_

He ran his hand over the gash lines running across his stomach, the old skin that used to be raised peeling away like tissue. It was more green and yellow and pale this time, still trying to fit his complexion. He was given another life, another chance to get things right. For her, for _them_ who set things right for _him_. 

What was he doing…? 

He stepped out of the shower, wiped himself dry and got dressed in an old pair of trainers reserved for nights in. Back in the bedroom, he heard the yawning king dozing off in the lounge set before he saw him. 

Gladio had to slap him on his knee to jolt him awake. Deep blue eyes squinted at him, attempting something that resembled a proper glare. “Go to bed if youʼre gonna sleep. Whereʼs Ignis and Prompto?” He snatched his old hoodie from the foot of his bed to pull onto his arms. Yawning again, the drowsy king first pointed one way and then the other. “Uh-huh.” 

“Curatives,” Noctis explained in a mangled voice. He scratched his head after, straightening up. “Curatives and ingredients.” 

“You waiting on something?” 

“Cup noodles,” Noctis answered, rubbing his eye like a cat. “Got a text that they restocked some hot and spicy chickatrice.” 

“Oooh, that sounds good.” Gladio put himself at the corner of his bed, zipping up his hoodie to his midriff so that the Crownsguardʼs emblem was still split in half. “Tell ‘em to get 5.” 

Noctis nodded, pulling out his phone to do as he was told. 

Gladio waited for him to put it away before he asked his king, “You okay, then?” 

“Hm?” Noctis whipped at him. 

“You doing okay?” Gladio couldnʼt keep his eyes from sweeping him up and down. Clean arms, clean face, erect posture (given the circumstances), elbows and knees looked to be in the right places. “She was fast, wasnʼt she?” 

Noctis snorted with a sneer on his lips. “Tell me about it. Iʼll get her again tomorrow.” Of course it had to be him. “Ignis found a couple more fossils at the back of the car. Iʼll craft some surprises in the morning.” 

“Sure, but give us a warning, okay?” Gladio scratched his ear. 

Noctis canted his head to him, passing the question back. “You?” 

Gladio straightened up to show himself. “Still intact.” 

Noctis nodded. “Good.” He pointed to him, just as his phone beeped. “If we hadnʼt gotten to you first, thatʼs two feathers you owe us.” He read his message, just as Gladio swallowed a sickly grunt at the thought. “Ignis wants to know if we still got enough smelling salts.” 

“Yeah, just checked it today,” Gladio answered. “Hey, Iʼm really grateful for you guys.” 

“You should be,” Noctis sighed softly, putting the phone back in his pocket. “Friends like us donʼt come easy.” 

“Not to mention an ego like yours.” 

They snickered, grinning at each other. “Well…what happened down there, anyway?” Noctis ventured after a brief pause. “Did she stun you or something? You were just gaping at her even when she was about to gut you again.” 

_Mom._

Gladio couldnʼt find the balls to look him in the eye. What happened, it was so unbecoming of him. As a Shield, as a fighter, as Noctis’ trainer…as a member of the Crownsguard, everything. All those times he barked at his king to stop gaping and start moving came back to bite him in the ass. What an embarrassment. He should have been looking at himself in the mirror when he said that. How could he have allowed himself to get lost in his hallucinations? When the threat was real and so was the king… 

He started to laugh despite himself, smiling weightily. “What is it they like to say? You either die young a hero or live long enough to be the villain.” 

“Hey…” 

“Look, I,” Gladio scratched his head, “got no explanations or excuses. Iʼm really sorry that happened.” He tossed his hand. “I ainʼt proud of it. Whatever I say…it boils down to the fact that itʼs a stupid thing to do. And I shouldnʼt have done it. Itʼs not…my duty to just fail like that.” Let these things get the better of him. 

“Gladio,” Noctis brought his elbows to his knees to look closer at him, “I didnʼt come out here to make you feel bad…” Not that he needed to. 

Gladio smirked wanly. “Maybe not you…” He put his fist to his heart. “But I gotta. I gotta remember what this feels like ‘cause if I donʼt…” He was scared he would come up with all those phantoms again. “…I might do it again, yʼknow?” And the next time he does, he might…Noctis might… “I, if I canʼt protect you…what good am I, right?” Supposedly, he was still the King’s Shield. 

“Not sure I follow.” Noctis straightened up. “But I know youʼre not one to talk like that unless somethingʼs really bothering you. Well…” He scratched his head. “I guess Shields can have bad days, too.” 

Gladio chuckled hollowly as he shook his head. “Not this Shield, Noct. Not when itʼs you Iʼm sworn to protect.” 

“But if youʼre still not okay…” 

“Hey, donʼt worry about it.” Gladio thumbed himself. “This Shieldʼs as ready as heʼll ever be. This time Iʼll protect you for sure.” Or else, he shouldnʼt be here. 

He pushed the thought off his head, hurried to distract the both of them. “Besides…besides, remember what I said?” What should he say to his king? 

“When?” When what? Maybe one of those…one of those swearing ceremonies? 

“In the Crownsguard initiation, all those years back.” Whatever—as long as the questions stopped, along with his daemons. 

“Oh.” 

Noctis didnʼt have to say another word, not when that dumb look on his face had given him completely away. 

Gladio burst out laughing despite himself, throwing his elbows back to the bed. “You donʼt!!” 

“Hey, shut up!” Noctis hissed at him, squaring up to his defense. “Itʼs not my fault that was like, the most boring ceremony I ever sat in,” he scowled, slumping back to his seat with arms crossed. “I wasnʼt even supposed to go but then Dad said I had to come ‘cause my Shield was gonna be in it. And that was like…one hour? Two? Of every guy in the Crownsguard just swearing fealty. I mean, how hard would it have been to just appoint your dad to say the words on behalf of everyone?” 

“‘cause we have to say our names, you punk!” Gladio reached back for a pillow, prompting Noctis to raise his arms in defense even before he got it on his face. “Itʼs an oath-taking ceremony, not an attendance check.” 

“Donʼt remember attendance checks being that dragging.” 

“It was just five seconds!” His Shield began, forgetting the pillow he never got just so he could show his counting fingers to his king, “I, Gladiolus Amicitia, swear to defend the Crown and its people in life and in death. This I swear in the name of my king, uh…” He paused briefly at the third finger. “Noctis Lucis Caelum, 114th King of Lucis, with the Old Kings and the Six Gods as my witness. See! Five!” 

“You counted too slow, that was 12!!” Noctis showed his seven fingers. “Times 100 or something!” 

“You know 120 seconds is just 2 minutes, right?” 

“Whatever!” Noctis bared his teeth at his Shield who dropped his head back to laugh again. “Anyway, it was still boring.” This stubborn shit. 

“You punk,” Gladio clicked his tongue, then sighed. “That was babyʼs first day, my proudest moment.” 

Noctis shrugged. “Sorry,” he said unapologetically. “Iʼm just not into scripted stuff, yʼknow?” 

“Define an oath, Noct.” 

“A vow? A promise?” Noctis shrugged arrogantly after proving that he knew his synonyms well. “Look, there was no way I would have known who you were from reciting someone else’s lines or whatever but if you’d have told me something like…” He shrugged. “Like…like this thing you told me when Prompto and I fought back in high school…remember?” He did. “You said, ‘Iʼve got your back, now and always.’” While he and the then-prince were drinking soft drinks in his balcony, and Noctis had poured out how upset he was and how friendless he felt. “You know, that really stuck with me.” It stuck with Gladio, too—the oath-taking ceremony was one of his proudest moments as a member of the Crownsguard, but that chat in the balcony had been one of his proudest ones as a Shield. And a friend. “And that was just 5 seconds, too.” 

Gladio snorted, smiling lopsidedly at his persistence. “Easy for you to say. You don’t like it when other people tell you what to do.” And him, the guidance of his elders had always been important to him. Those who came before him, those who…left…before him. He had to honor them. 

“I thought you’re the guy who keeps telling Ignis to stop treating me like a kid?” Noctis cocked a brow at his words. “You’re even saying I ought to take a walk on the wild side.” But he had to honor his king, too… 

So what would it be? _What’ll it be, Gladiolus?_ he found himself asking himself as he watched that subtle scowl on Noctis’ face. _Will it be the past or the future?_ He always liked to take a walk in the wild side of things, too. When he could… 

And this time, maybe he could. Maybe he _should_. Forget the past, forget his debt—before he ended up forgetting the present and himself. Noctis needed him. Ignis was counting on him, too. Prompto couldn’t look after them both either. And Iris was still too young. He had to be there for the living, too—not just the dead. 

Gladio had to smirk at his smart rebuttal, and nod in approval. “Nice save.” 

Noctis tapped his head with his own haughty look. “Iʼm a fast learner.” Gladio would say that depended on the situation but whatever. 

He still shed some light on his dilemma, and that was more than he could say for himself. “Smart-ass,” he said, even as he got up to offer his fist to Noctis for a bump.


	5. Chapter 5

“Gladio!” Distant voices, unseen in the darkness but close enough for him to touch, he thought. “Gladio!!” There was fear in their pitches, ringing higher and louder than the burst of fire and the clash of steel. “Gladio!!” All looking for him, all coming for him. 

_Gladiolus, to me!!_

_Gladiolus!!_

_No!!!_

“ _Gladiolus Amicitia!!_ ” 

Gladio felt like he was coming up from a deep ocean when he gasped awake all of a sudden, bright lights piercing his eyes, the cold air filling his lungs and clogging them. The bullets and the blade were still there but the scenery was different. 

And Ignis was there, heaving out a great breath of relief as he dropped his head and punched Gladio on his chest. His styled hair had since gone loose, and there was dirt on the sleeves of his white shirt. 

When he came up to face him, Gladio didnʼt know if he wanted to cry or to burn him alive for that trick he pulled. “Gladio, how many times…!” he growled. 

“To my defense,” Gladio rasped, coughed, “it wasnʼt my fault this time.” Someone yelled out a curse in the background. “Where’s Noct?” 

“Twelve oʼclock.” Ignis reached down to him so they could grasp each otherʼs arms and he could pull him up off the dirt. “He and Prompto have been at it since you fell into a state of shock.” 

“Switch with him,” Gladio coughed again, bringing up his shield in his left hand. “Tell Prompto to get another flare out.” 

“Good call.” Ignis nudged his glasses back before he took off to the enraged screaming just ahead of them. 

Down a dirt road, torn wide open as if by an entire army marching through, he saw the sputter of blue zipping past a body dangling off the eaves of trees. Gunfire dotted the heavy canopy, a tight roar bolstering their heat, as if the gunner meant to rip the monster off her roots by the sheer number of his ammo. “ _Noct!_ ” Gladio hollered for the kingʼs attention, holding up his weapon. “Shield!!” 

A streak of blue light, and Noctis was rolling and gasping on the dirt behind him, then coughing and wincing. 

“Got any ethers left?” Gladio crouched next to him, hiding them both behind his shield. He offered his right wrist, letting Noctis grapple on it like a simian on his way to his knees. 

“Used up my last one,” Noctis groaned, smacking his face on Gladioʼs back. “The hell took you so long?” he mumbled against the leather. 

“I dunno, some guy didnʼt give me a warning when he chucked that _Thunder_.” Gladio didnʼt bother to add a note of sarcasm in his voice. Up ahead, Ignis was flipping back from Echidnaʼs sharp reach, bringing Prompto back to the scene who slid to his ass and spent his magazine on the daemon. It was the distraction Ignis needed to jump and strike with his spear. “Got any more?” 

Noctisʼ head rolled on his back. 

“Ignis?” 

“The last one was his,” he replied. “Iʼve used up all our fossils, anyway. This time, it really is up to us.” 

“Or maybe one of your divine friends might be around the area to come down and say hi—” 

Ignisʼ roar erupted suddenly, but Gladio only saw him landing on his back when he swept the scene urgently for him. 

“ _Ignis!!_ ” That was him, Noctis and Prompto. _Fuck!_ Gladio thought. Prompto had stumbled to Ignis, dropping to his knees, putting his back to Echidna. Unguarded. Gladio had almost gotten up and taken off to the both of them but with the king behind him, too weak to warp—

Or so he thought—a flash of blue and he was gone, literally falling right next to Ignis to roll onto his knees and put up his shield. Form too tight, shoulders lopsided. 

Noctis wouldnʼt make it. That shield would break the moment the shrieking Echidna cut her talons through it—

Terror and desperation joined hands for once when Gladio summoned his sword and pitched it at the hanging corpse with a wild growl. One of its long edges slashed through the daemonʼs side before she managed to pull herself back up the shadows. 

Her scream, a thousand tiny rocks scratching at each other, filled the night. Gladio slid onto his knees next to his friends, pulling out a potion from the inside of his jacket to crush onto Ignisʼ chest, turning it into a cloud of lights. It brought out a deep groan from the man pulling himself up to sit. 

“Stay with me, Ignis.” Gladio carried him up with a hand on his shoulder until he was leaning back against a tree. “Canʼt do this without your tactics. Noct, stick with ‘im, I need you in warping order fast as you can.” 

“Yep!” Noctis grunted, biting his teeth through the strain of his stasis. 

“Prompto,” Gladio pulled him up, “still good?” 

“What do you think!” Prompto screeched, practically seething as he wiped his face on his soiled shirt. “Iʼm dirty, Iʼm smelly, I wanna take her down so I can go back to our hotel room and stay in the shower forever!” 

“Yup,” Gladio concluded, clapping him on his shoulder as the wind blew. In his mind, he was reaching back into the crystals for— “Still good—” 

“ _Gladio!_ ” Ignis yelled. 

He was swinging his shield forward like a punch the moment Echidna smashed her arm onto it, as if she was aiming for a sideways sweep that would have thrown him and Prompto off the ground if he hadnʼt planted his feet firmly on the dirt. Then he followed it up with the one weapon he hadnʼt used yet: 

His fist, swinging straight for Echidnaʼs jaw, powerful enough to break a common manʼs bones. For a daemon, though, it was just enough to stun her. 

Still more than what he needed to drive another mean left hook directly to her head. She wouldnʼt stay still forever, he knew, he had to give it his all as if she would kill him for sure in 2 seconds. 

Right and left traded places with each other, then stopped when that vicious hand grabbed his shield, sharp fingers, halfway between bones and aged roots, wrapped fiercely along one of its wings. Gladio lost his weapon, then, let the crystals reclaim it while he ducked from another swipe that would have ripped his head off his shoulders. 

“Stay right there, stay right there, _stay right there!!_ ” 

Promptoʼs feet landed on his back, his panicky yell merging perfectly with the frantic blasts of his guns. Across him, he could hear Ignis and Noctis charging for the daemon, crystals flashing as they summoned their weapons. 

Gladio didnʼt wait too long until Prompto had to dive out from a strike and he was rolling forward, meeting Noctis in a tag-team clap of hands on his way to Ignis spinning his spear. 

“Gladio,” he called to him, “a boost, if you please!” 

“Get in here, short stuff!” As if 6-inches spelled a great difference in this particular matter of life and death. Gladio went down on one knee, weaving his fingers into a net. 

As soon as Ignis had pressed his foot on it like a pedal, Gladio launched him back onto the hanging daemon, giving Ignis enough time to perform his acrobatics before he and Noctis both landed a downward strike with their spears on the feisty corpse, gouging parallel lines onto her thick flesh. At least the parts they could cut through; they wouldnʼt be stuck in this muddy ground forever if it werenʼt for that. 

“Just as we planned, Noct!” Ignis complimented the king, flipping back to Gladio who dashed for them. 

“You’re surprised?” Noctis rebutted, using a line that was normally Ignisʼ while he returned himself to his protectorʼs side. 

That shield was back, just in time for Gladio to defend all three of them from Echidnaʼs enraged retaliation. Three hissing strikes landed on the curved face of his weapon, scraping noisily at the steel. 

Promptoʼs flare came again, dressing the entire world in white, giving them a brief reprieve while the daemon twisted and tried to hide her face from the artificial star. “Iʼm all out!!” he announced. 

“Noct, warp!” Ignis barked. 

Noctis was gone in a flash, reappearing overhead with his greatsword which he slammed onto the monster, aiming for one of those parallel lines to draw a downwards one leading to the left. It was the deepest cut they could afford yet. Any more of this, any more shaking from the daemon and—

“Almost there!” Gladio cried, standing back while Ignis launched himself on the monster. Both he and Noctis came at the daemon with their spears out for a longer reach while Prompto restarted with his bullets. 

He came into the picture only when Ignis dodged the last attack and rolled onto his knee, putting himself and his shield between friend and fiend. He was the sworn protector among the three of them, after all. More than fighting, this was a job heʼd mastered since birth. The job he was meant for, that he survived for. “Take a breather, I got ya!” 

“My thanks, Gladio,” Ignis coughed. 

Whatever Echidna threw at them—body slams, swipes, those damn snake heads, Gladio chased them all with his shield. While her eyes were on him, Noctis reappeared suddenly, leaping into the air and swinging his ancestral star at her side. It cut her around her waist, disappeared into the night until Prompto snatched it and threw it back, catching Echidnaʼs other side on the way. 

“Gladio,” the dirt crunched under Ignisʼ feet, “give me your shield!” 

Gladio tucked himself under it, bracing both fists onto it for an extra weight. As soon as he felt Ignis bounce off its face, he put it down, watching him soar for the daemon, crossed arms lashing outwards to draw two lines between those cuts on her waist. At this rate, all it would take was one more wide slash and—

Gladio tossed his shield back to the crystals, pulled out his glaive in its stead as he dashed for the daemon dangling heavily from her eaves, a rising roar bolstering him forward. With enough momentum to carry him, he kicked himself off the ground, threw his heavy blade over his shoulder and then sideways for a ripping cut. 

He landed with the fading scream of the daemon, her half-body, battered and broken, dropping like a sack to the earth with his feet. Without her twisted appearance, she looked like a different being now—twisted by illness, eyes bloodshot with stunned fury mangling her features. 

How different from the woman she’d reminded him off, turned white in fear and stolen by death for all of her feisty spirit. Her fingers were warm only because he was holding onto them, stubborn as a dumb garula to let go. In her beautiful dress, she became no better than a doll on the ground, her pastel skirt and soft feet stained by the mud. Her hair, too, was splayed out, dark like the blood that flowed through the cut on her chest. 

Like his scar, Gladio remembered suddenly. A hand ghosted to his chest, feeling the lumpy skin under the cotton. 

“Oh my gods, thatʼs her!” Promptoʼs voice broke in his excitement. “ _Thatʼs her!!_ We did it! _We did iiit!!_ ” 

“Good job, all of us!” Ignis applauded them, catching his breath. “We should be proud of ourselves for what weʼve accomplished here.” 

“Iʼm more proud of being rich enough to afford a hotel for a _week_ ,” Noctis groaned. “Gladio, weʼre spending all that money on hotels, okay? Gladio?” 

“Gladio…” A warm hand touched his arm. She did that, too. She used to do that, before she leaned down and offered him her sweetest smile. _Gladiolus?_ she would ask him. 

“Yeah!” Gladio croaked, blinking back the dampness in his eyes before he reached for Echidnaʼs to close hers—but she was gone, burning away into indigo smoke. She was a daemon, after all. 

“G, Gladio…” Prompto stammered. “W, were you…?” He remembered her eyes being closed. 

He remembered someone doing it, while he touched his shoulder. He could never forget the look of his blue eyes when they found him, halfway between shock, harsh acceptance and the determination to remain stoic. As if the woman had been nothing to them all their lives. 

_If I canʼt protect you, what good am I?_ he whispered. 

“Gladio…hey, Gladio?” Blue eyes looked deeply into him, a hand, warm from the gun, shaking him on his shoulder. 

_Gladiolus, are you all right?_

“Gladio…you okay?” 

And then he would bring him to his strong shoulder, wrapping him in a one-armed embrace. _My gods, Gladiolus…oh, my Six Gods!_

“Gladiolus.” 

Gladio started, whipping to his friend who looked at him closely with spring green eyes. “Yeah!” he gasped again, clearing his throat. “Yeah…yeah, yeah, yeah, Iʼm…Iʼm good. I’m good…” 

“We best be off,” Ignis said, getting up on his feet. “We still have hours to burn before daylight.” 

“And you look like you could use a cuppa.” Noctis held out his right hand to him. “A cuppa noodles, that is.” Nice joke. 

Gladio chuckled weakly, as though he was just coughing. But the smile on his face could be a lot better. His friends were right, though. “Yeah,” he said, “sounds good, all right.” He slapped his hand onto Noctis so they could pull him up. 

He lost her fingers when they slipped off his stubborn grasp.


	6. Chapter 6

“So…” 

That was how it always started among the four of them. Weeks, months spent on the road, sharing a tent or a caravan, a single room with a couple of extra mattresses if the place was booked, was probably half the reason why they could work together as smoothly as the Regalia could run. Looking over their shoulders became second nature. Switching places, tucking their elbows in to give way, jumping in without a waste of breath. It seemed more familiar to them now to be sharing some space than to be filling it all on their own. 

So when somebody prompts a conversation, nodding to the fat chocobo in the room, everyone turns to it without a second thought. It could be anyone; usually it was Ignis—straightforward and all business. Sometimes, it was Prompto—nervous but sincere. 

This time, it was the king himself, cup of Ebony in hand, never one to want to stay in the dark for too long. “That was a tough daemon, huh…Gladio?” Singled out. 

Gladio chuckled, though it was mostly air that came out. That Noctis was taking this position at all… was actually nothing short of a miracle. It used to be that he would ask his friends to do all the work for him. Tell him this, ask him this…but donʼt say it came from me. Taking one step forward and then one step back from his role as king. 

Who was he, a servant of the Crown, to refuse the request of his liege, then? “Yeah,” he admitted, his voice grating the base of his throat. “It was…more than Iʼd ever imagined.” No better time to get at it than now. 

He finished the broth of his cup noodles, put it down on the floor next to his bed. “Hey, wasnʼt there someone here who asked me how my mom went?” 

“That was Prompto,” Ignis answered, astute as always though he was busy cleaning the tear wounds on Gladioʼs left forearm. Heʼd gotten it when the daemon had torn through his half-formed shield and latched onto his arm instead. Heʼd jumped in then to protect Prompto whoʼd fallen on his face and never one to waste a rising fury, he used the opportunity to grab onto the same offending arm. Keep her steady while his friends launched their blades and bullets at her. “And it wasnʼt you he asked, it was me. It was during Her Majestyʼs death anniversary. He asked me if your mom was still okay.” 

“Oh yeah, and you told me while you were driving me home,” Gladio recalled with a hollow peak of his lips. They sat side-by-side each other on his bed, legs crossed under them, Ignisʼ well-loved first aid kit between them. “What did you tell him again, then?” 

“That she passed away in a car accident during a family trip,” Ignis answered. He hung his head back and flexed his neck, grunting deeply as he squeezed his eyes tight. Heʼd been at this for what must have been an hour now, refusing to let anyone else do the job except him. Ignis had always had a problem with delegation. On that end, he and Noctis could learn a little from each other. 

“Do you…” Prompto was quick to jump in on the opportunity to suggest a break, but heʼd done that three times now and was shut down every single one. So he changed tactics: “…need another cup?” 

Ignis could never refuse an invitation to indulge in his vice. “Please.”

“Okay!” Prompto got up from the other bed and started for the kitchen. Maybe it was because he fought from a distance but he was decidedly the least battered of the three of them, sufficing only with medical tapes here and there. 

“Hey, Ignis,” Gladio began with a soft warning tone, “if you drink too much of that stuff—” 

“Oh, believe me,” Ignis chuckled almost mirthlessly, “no amount of caffeine is going to keep me up tonight. Not after that hunt.” He was already in his ratty shirt and well-loved trainers, after all, with his hair down. 

“Ignis sounds really tired, all right,” Noctis laughed quietly from the headboard of the other bed. 

Prompto reappeared with two fresh cups, one for Ignis and another for Gladio. They thanked him, though Gladio only asked for one sip of the bitter black goodness before he passed it back to their friend. 

So Prompto took it with him where he and Noctis could share it between them. “So,” he tried to pick up from where they left off, “your mom got in an accident during a vacation. And she didnʼt make it to the hospital?” Clumsy, but it works. 

Gladio nodded. “No, she didnʼt.” 

Prompto responded with a quiet, “Ohhh…” and several bops of understanding with his head. 

Gladioʼs smirk flickered briefly onto his lips. “She didnʼt…die in a car accident.” 

“Eh? Seriously?” The entire room jolted to a stop. Even Ignis with his razor sharp focus stammered from his work, lifting his face to glare at Gladio in confusion. 

Gladio tried to smile. “Sorry. I was telling you guys the official story.” 

“So it was covered up?” Noctis sputtered, eyes round. 

Gladio nodded to him. “Yeah. Wouldʼve been scandalous otherwise if the real story got out.” 

“You mean—” 

“—it had something to do with the Crown,” Ignis finished after his oldest friend. There was no other reason, after all. They would all know. 

Gladio tilted his head to a side. “Kinda.” Then he exhaled quietly, putting his eyes to his wounds to focus him as he reached back to his memory. The first time he would ever flex that muscle. “I was just 10 when it happened. Iris was 2-years old. One day, Dad took me on a trip with some members of the Crownsguard. It was their team building, he said. And that I could learn a thing or two from it as the future Shield of the King.” 

“This is definitely the first time Iʼve heard of this,” Noctis mumbled, pulling a pillow to his chest to get comfortable. 

Gladio smirked at his observation. “Youʼll find out why.” He cleared his throat. By now, Ignis was applying his curatives to his wounds. 

He went on. “Mom came with us. Since I was just a kid, she said I needed my mother. I remember chancing upon my dadʼs study the day before the trip. The door was a little open and he and mom were inside…fighting.” He shrugged. “Doesnʼt make sense, after all, for her to come. Iris was only 2, she needed her mom more than I did. Of course Mom eventually had her way. Thing is that…” Gladio paused briefly, sniffing while he rubbed his thumb on his nose. 

“Thing is that Mom was never close to Iris. She fed her with her milk, carried her sometimes…but thatʼs it,” he revealed, facing all his friends in turn. “Itʼs postpartum, they said. She had it with me, too, but that only lasted for weeks. And then I grew up and we were okay. When it was Irisʼ turn…” He shook his head. “I think she had a really hard time. And…we became close. Really close.” 

“I understand itʼs a symptom of postpartum depression if a mother experiences difficulty bonding with their newborn,” Ignis pitched in, hardly taking his eyes away from his work. “Perhaps that is why she preferred you over your sister. The other symptoms are fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, severe mood swings, thoughts that they arenʼt a good mother—which she must have projected on you in some way. And then thoughts of harming the baby…” 

“I donʼt…know about those things,” Gladio confessed quietly. “I…at a young age, Dad told me to focus on my future as the sworn protector of the Crown. I know Mom loved me and…sometimes she was overprotective of me.” He frowned, bringing back her image to his head. Dressed in silk and sunlight, watching him practice the shield in the garden. “She…she fussed over me a lot,” he explained. “Doesn’t matter if itʼs a graze or a bruise, sheʼd raise hell if she had to look at my injury a second longer. Dad always said she should take a step back, that Iʼll grow up to be a shattered Shield if she never let her hands off me. They always fought whenever he brought my duty up.” He sighed. 

Took a sip from Ignisʼ cup of Ebony before he moved on. “We went all the way to Duscae, and stayed in this cabin by the creek in the woods,” he continued, smirking as he remembered his first day in those warm walls, golden lights reflected off polished wood, the smell of the fireplace as it crackled. And he and some officers sat around, sticking whatever they wanted in it. Bread, marshmallows, corn and sweet potatoes. “It felt like the best day of my life. We were only there for a few days but I wanted to live there forever.” 

“Is that place still around?” Prompto asked. 

“Could be,” Gladio shrugged. “Or maybe it isnʼt anymore. These days, nobody stays in the woods, anymore. Since itʼs much harder to maintain electricity there.” Ignis turned his arm a little for a few final touches, and then he was wrapping it in gauze. “But it wasnʼt the kind of vacation I expected. I only found out about this 5 years ago but…they didnʼt come out there for team building. It was a daemon hunt.” 

“By the Crownsguard?” Noctisʼ jaw fell with Promptoʼs. “They used to do daemon hunts?” 

“Imagine my surprise when I found out,” Gladio chuckled. 

“But if you only found out 5 years ago,” Ignis mused, finally relinquishing his arm. “That makes you 18…8 years after the trip.” Sharp green eyes rose to meet him. “At 18, you joined the Crownsguard.” 

Gladio nodded to his conclusion. “I wouldnʼt have found out anything from Dad. You know how he is.” Didnʼt even think to tell his heir about the treaty before the the Crown City fell. “Besides, something like what happened…there was no way it could have stayed completely silent. I did my own investigations. Thatʼs how I found out about it.” 

“So…is it like ours?” Prompto asked, receiving the cup back from his friend. He held onto it while he added, “Is it like…somebody hired the Crownsguard to hunt a daemon and thereʼs a bounty?” 

“Not a job. A favor,” Gladio answered, handing Ignis a pillow while he moved to the floor so he could rest his back against the side of the bed, groan in relief. “The guy who called it was a royalist who supported the Crown in our anti-imperial campaigns.” He rubbed his fingers together. “In other words, he gave us money when we were running short.” 

He settled his elbows on his knees, careful with his bandages. “After a stroke, he retired from the city life and moved to this mansion in Duscae for the quiet life. But then one day, one of his sons and his friends went to Daurell Caverns for some extreme fishing.” The room shifted in recognition of where the plot was going. “Never got out alive. Only means one thing.” 

“Itʼs Echidna, right?” 

Gladio smirked at his king. “Good to know youʼre paying attention. Yeah, it was her. They found the body, consulted Meldacio…Meldacio offered to settle it but my dadʼs friend wanted premium service. Premium revenge. So he called my dad, and my dad went.” He shook his head. “I actually donʼt know if my mom ever found out why we were really there. Whenever she hears my name and the word _shield_ , she just…” He turned his hand next to his head, fingers opening as if in an explosion. “Flares up. So she went with us. And then one night…when everything was quiet, she came to my room, made me put down my book, dressed me up warm…” 

“She would steal you away,” Ignis realized, looking up to him, back on the pillow. Always on point. 

Gladio nodded. “I didnʼt know about it at first, of course. She said it was a Shield exercise and my dad had told us to do it. She said, ‘Out here in the dark, one wrong move is the difference between life and death.’ And I remembered my dad telling me that once, so I believed her and we left.” 

“But where were you going?” Promptoʼs suspense was barely restrained. 

Gladio quirked up his lips. “I…I donʼt think she knew. She just wanted to get me outta there, outta the Shield life. When I asked, she didnʼt answer. But she was my mom, she never let me hurt too long so I followed her, anyway. The Crownsguard caught up with us soon. We werenʼt gonna get anywhere on foot. They had us surrounded not long after. She was hugging me tight, telling them we werenʼt going back. And then…she came.” 

“Who came?” Noctis. 

Gladio turned to answer him. “Echidna.” Just her name alone invoked the deepest nightmares of his childhood even after they felled her. Guns ablazing, voices roaring and wailing, leaves laughing, thunder rolling, steel clashing. A dark night that threatened to choke him alive in dread. “Mom…took advantage of the confusion.”

_Gladiolus, to me!!_

“I took her hand and we ran for it. I kept asking about dad but she never stopped, just told me to stay close to her. That sheʼll never let them get me.” 

Gladio was surprised when Prompto appeared in front of him with a mug of hot water. He thanked him, and let his clammy hands warm up around it as he went on. “But Mom…didnʼt know the place. And it was dark and it was raining. When I corroborated the stories I heard, I realized we must have been running _to_ the cave. There was no way those men would have escaped Echidna just like that. We tried to get away but one of them blocked our path. A guy with a sword. Mom was running out of options. She pushed me to the ground.” The earth in his mouth, tears down his face. “Stood in front of me, arms out.” 

_You wonʼt take him from me!!_

“He cut her down.”

_Gladiolus!!_

Gladio sniffed at the voice of his father ringing in his head, loud with fear. He rubbed his nose again and sipped from the water. “Just like that. They said they thought she was Echidna. Dad saw it all.” 

_No!!!_

“But he was too late,” Gladio cleared his throat, turning away for some space to breathe. To distract himself from that night as he blinked back his tears. “By the time he got to me, Mom was already on the ground, bleeding.” 

_Mom…?_

“She…” Gladio sniffled again, biting the trembling off his lips, eyes shut tight in a bid to stop his tears. “She never heard me…never woke up. I even took her hand so we could run again but she wouldnʼt move.” 

“Gladio…” He felt Ignis returning to the bed, putting his hand on his wrist. 

“Dad grabbed me by the shoulder.” 

_Gladiolus, are you all right?_

“Pulled me in.” 

_My gods, Gladiolus…oh, my Six Gods!_

“And then he took me by the hand and…” Gladio shook his head, voice thin. “Left. We just left Mom like that.” Someone exhaled, somebody else shifted. Ignis tightened his grip around his arm. He smiled at his friend for that. “We went back to Insomnia at first light. Waited for her body then cremated her and held the service that same day. You two probably went there,” he turned to both his fellow retainer and the king they served. 

“Yeah,” Noctis nodded. “I mean, I slept most of the time. But I thought Ignis looked really severe. I thought it was because you didnʼt wanna hang out with us.” 

“I knew it was a terrible loss but…” Ignis shook his head. “I never could have known…” 

“I was in shock,” Gladio laughed shallowly. “‘course I wouldnʼt hang with you both. I was one of the principal mourners, too.” He drank some water again. “When we got home after burying her, Iris was crying. I thought she must have wanted milk. It was too much for Dad so he just…broke down, right then and there. First time I ever saw it.” More hollow laughter. He shook his head as if in disbelief. “First time he ever hugged me, too. I’ll never forget that he asked me if he couldnʼt protect us, what good a Shield was he? That was when I knew, too, that he wasnʼt to blame for Momʼs death. Tried to tell him that but,” he shrugged, “he never listened.” 

“How did he handle this?” Ignis asked. 

Gladio chuckled at him, grinning. “Whaddya think? Heʼs my dad, he never did anything else to me.” 

“So he just…trained you?” Prompto sounded surprised. 

“Yeah,” Gladio said, facing him across the room. “Said I had to be harder, and faster. Had to be a better Shield than him. So that I donʼt lose anyone important anymore. It was hard. What happened to my mom…changed my dad.” He shook his head. “Couldn’t get angry at him, though. I knew he hurt as much as I did, just couldnʼt show it. So I turned to the guy who killed her. Then I found out that he went AWOL after that night and that his body washed up to Caem shore. I was a lot older, then. A little smarter. So then I realized, it wasnʼt his fault. He was just…” He breathed out through his nose. “Another casualty. Someone else who gave his life up…‘cause I needed to be a Shield.” 

“Gladio…” Prompto started, but couldnʼt continue. 

Gladio beamed at his concern. “Iʼm like this ‘cause of them.” He spread his hand out. “Canʼt take my duty lightly, knowing how many people died just to get me here. It ainʼt fair for them.” He raised his cup to the frowning Noctis. “Iʼm like this ‘cause of you. ‘cause of all of you,” he turned to the room. “‘cause Iʼd be an insult to you guys…to my dad, to my family…” He raised his fist to his chest. “To myself, if I let anything like what happened to me happen to you guys.” 

“Oh cʼmon, Gladio,” Noctis groaned, motioning to throw his pillow to his face. 

“Just tellinʼ the truth!” Gladio raised his bandaged arm, both for his protection and to remind Noctis of his injuries. “Itʼs why…itʼs why I couldnʼt let this hunt go just like that.” He brought them both back to his knees. “Call it revenge, call it duty,” he shrugged, “but I felt it was my responsibility. So…so thatʼs why weʼre here.” 

Ignis sighed out loud. “What a long and arduous battle you fought all on your own, Gladio.” 

“Yeah but,” Gladio gestured to them with his mug, “remember this time, I had you guys. So…thanks. For carrying me on your backs.” And seeing this through with him. 

“At the last part!” Prompto complained, gathering his phone and his camera. It had been a long day, so it was time to turn in. “You could have told us much sooner!” 

“Nah, he wants all the fame and glory to himself.” Finally, Noctis pitched his pillow at Gladio who snatched it off the air before it could kiss his face. “Right, Shield?” 

“Ha.” Gladio grinned, throwing it back. “Just something I picked up from serving you, King.” 

“All right, thatʼs quite enough,” Ignis snapped, getting up to pick up the mugs, the empty plastic cup of noodles, his first aid kit. “Time to go to your room, Noct and Prompto.” Then with a finger, he warned them, “And no video games.” 

“All right, all right,” Noctis hissed, scratching his head as he pushed his feet back in his boots. “You’re such a mom sometimes.” 

“I shouldnʼt have to be if you wouldnʼt make me,” Ignis said upon his return from the kitchen. “Goodnight, both of you.” 

“Night!” Prompto sang, waving on his way out. “Good job today!” 

“Indeed.” Ignis and Gladio waved back. 

“Hey.” Noctis pointed at Gladio already fluffing his pillow. “No more secrets, okay, Shield? We can’t always be doing this.” He could say that again. 

“Yeah.” Gladio saluted. “Aye, aye, Majesty.” 

That was the last thing he said before he pulled the door shut after him and Prompto, who piped up suddenly and said, “Noct, I was just thinking…” 

“Theyʼre not gonna be sleeping soon,” Gladio chuckled, putting his head to his pillow and pulling his blanket up to his chest. 

“Thatʼs their problem tomorrow,” Ignis sighed, sitting on the side of his bed, facing Gladio. “You, though, have no escape from me.” 

Gladio raised his exposed arm up, as if to present his tucked form. 

Ignis smiled a little in approval. “Very good,” he commended him, playing jokes on his motherly role. “Are you feeling all right now, then?” he asked, the same way she had after he hurt himself in practice. 

His own mother. Funny how he always had someone looking out for him like that. After all heʼd been through. No matter what he did, there would always be those who would bring him to where he had to be. “Yeah,” Gladio assured him with his own smile. “Iʼm okay now. Thanks.”


	7. Chapter 7

There was something decidedly different about air that morning. Something lighter, something cheerier. 

“There a fair or something?” Gladio mused as he stepped out of their hotel, watching two women meet by the fountain with happy gasps, ecstatic waves and eager hugs. Afterwhich, they parted from each other and handed each other gift bags. 

“Itʼs Advent Day,” Ignis explained, stopping beside him to look. Gladio glanced at him with brows raised. He faced him to add, “The same Advent Day we celebrate, yes.” 

“The day the Pyreburner gifted mankind with fire?” He adjusted the strap of his fat bag on his shoulder. “Theyʼre days early.” 

“Thatʼs because Lestallum still follows the old calendar. At least for this one day.” Ignis nodded them onwards. After all, their bags were heavy and Noctis and Prompto still hadnʼt learned how to pack light. Speaking of, where were they? 

“Looks fun. Shame to be leaving,” Gladio commented, following after their driver. “Where are Noct and Prompto?” 

“They dropped by the market. I already called them.” Ignis led them down the narrow shortcut towards the parking space near the tunnel. 

“ _You_ let them out in the market on their own?” 

“My assumption is that after 3 days, they would have satisfied their fill of Lestallum by now,” Ignis seemed unfazed when he responded to Gladioʼs wide look. “I did warn them that the back is full and any last minute souvenirs would either have to go at the front or be abandoned here.” 

“Think thatʼd work?” 

“It had better,” Ignis said, waiting for a Coernix tank truck to pass before they crossed the road. Despite the kind of tone he employed, though, Gladio knew Ignis was more likely to relent and compromise than to force the king to obey his rules. 

“Sure like to see that for myself,” Gladio mumbled, mostly to keep his words to himself. It was just as well. 

Noctis and Prompto would be waiting for the two of them at the frontmost bench, back to the garden arrangement in the middle of the rotunda. Right where they wouldnʼt be missed. Prompto had a plastic bag hanging around his wrist, some on-the-go snacks, Gladio thought, if he knew the man, while Noctis had an envelope in his hands. 

He wondered where he got that. “Ready to go?” He swung Promptoʼs bag backwards. 

“Yup!” Prompto jumped to his feet. “Sure are—whoah!” With both hands out, plastic bag swinging, he followed his luggage on its path to the clear Duscaen skies, as if Gladio had really thrown it to him. He showed him an ugly face when Gladio laughed and handed it to him safely instead. “Guess youʼre really all patched up now.” 

“After spending 3 days and 2 nights vegetating in the hotel, Iʼd be worried if I still ainʼt.” In one line, they started off to the car. Even that part of the city seemed windier than normal, and a bit noisier with all these folks gazing out and taking pictures at the outlook. “Canʼt say I didnʼt enjoy hotel living but I canʼt say I ainʼt glad to be moving on either.” 

“Yeah, totally!” Prompto piped up, bouncing on his steps. “You know what I think? I think we can just mix up the two together, yʼknow?” He gestured to both things with his free hand. “Get back on the road but stay in hotels every night.” 

“Not a chance, weakling.” As soon as Prompto had hurried off the last step, Gladio swung his leg at his back, taking care to miss his friend. “Cʼmon, we probably spent a fortune here.” 

“You just want to break out the tent again!” 

“And if I do?” Gladio grinned. Prompto rolled his eyes, shaking his head like a chocobo to exaggerate how much he was doing it. 

“In any case, it wonʼt be a bad idea to return to frugality soon,” Ignis called back to them, both him and the king being much closer to the car now. “By the way, Prompto. Have you given it?” 

“Huh?” Prompto asked. “Give wh—ahh! Noctʼs gonna give it!” He pointed to the king who whirled at him, glared at him and pointed to his nose with the same hand that carried the envelope. “Cʼmon, youʼre the one holding it!” 

“Why me—” Noctis chose to munch out the rest of his protest in grumbles before, typical him, he handed the envelope to Ignis. Who glared at him in turn. “Ignis, you do it.” 

“Have you somehow gone limp that you canʼt cross the distance yourself?” 

“Igniiis.” 

Ignis sighed, pushing back his glasses. “Hopeless.” He reached for the envelope. 

“Just do it.” Noctis handed it off to him. And then as if to make his advisor feel better, he added, “Just leave your bag with me.” 

Ignis exhaled with a frown, shaking his head in clear disappointment. He did leave his stuff for what it was worth, before he marched his way back to them. 

Particularly to _Gladio_ , who furrowed his thick brows and accepted the envelope with both hands. What was up with this thing? “This is for you,” Ignis explained simply. 

“For Advent?” Gladio flipped the paper open. “Look, I didnʼt get you guys anything…” He pulled out its content; it was a photograph of his friends, gathered on one bed, all of them with funny expressions. Starting from the left, Noctis was wide-eyed, pointing to a waterfall of noodles cascading from his mouth next to Prompto who pursed his lips and flexed his muscles, shirtless under his vest. As for Ignis at the end of the row, he smiled, left eye shut with a finger held over it that reminded him of his scar…wait, in fact—

Cup noodles, shirtless muscles and a fake injured left eye. It didnʼt take Gladio much longer to figure out who they were trying to impersonate. He started to cackle, beaming bright. “When did you guys do this?” 

“Remember when Ignis sent you off to pick up that kujata satay we had for dinner?” Prompto put his bag next to his feet to cross his arms. “Obviously you didnʼt suspect it.” He sounded proud of it, too. 

“Maybe I was just too excited to be moving my legs for a change,” Gladio replied, flipping the picture to its back. Even when he did it, though, he never expected to see their handwriting on it. 

Messages. Short ones. And all of them for him. 

_Best Shield~!!! Thanks for always looking out for us!!!_ said Prompto with a cute doodle of a chocobo with a scarred left eye. 

_Remember: weʼre all here for you,_ Ignis reminded him. _Take care not to break your back. Let us carry some of the load for you._

As for Noctis, he began with, _What they said._ Which made Gladio guffaw. Classic. He did make an effort to add a few more things, though: _Thanks for opening up to us._

“This hunt was really hard for you,” Prompto started anew after Gladio flipped the photo back to the three of them. “And…we thought maybe we could do something to cheer you up so…” He flung his hands to the print. “Ta-da!” 

“Ha,” Gladio grinned, waving the photo before he looked first at Prompto, then at Ignis. “You know what? It does cheer me up.” He raised his fist to both of them for a bump. “Thanks, you guys.” He searched for Noctis but only found him by the car. Waiting. 

Too embarrassed that he showed his true feelings for his Shield. 

Gladio smiled. He would have his time later. 

“That looks better on you.” 

“Hm?” He turned to Ignis. 

“Your smile,” he explained with one of his own. “It suits you better than the weary frowns youʼd worn because of the hunt.” 

“Totally.” Prompto leaned back, fitting Gladio in a frame built with his fingers. “When youʼre smiling, you look like a photogenic menʼs magazine model but if youʼre frowning, you just look like a sad gorilla—” 

“Knock it off, if you donʼt want me to knock you out!” That was a threat, issued while Gladio swatted Promptoʼs picture frame into non-existence but the gritted smile on his face was unmistakable. “Cʼmon, letʼs get outta here! Sun wonʼt wait on us.” 

“Okay, okay!” Prompto raised his hands in surrender but later knocked his fist to Ignisʼ  
as they headed for the car again. “Good job us!” he said. They chatted between the two of them. 

Gladio distracted himself again with the photograph in his hand, a reminder of what he had. At least, primarily, that was what it was supposed to be. But they shouldnʼt blame Gladio if it meant something else to him. A purpose, a reason for being. 

“Hey,” he called to his friends while Ignis was packing the bags at the back and Prompto and Noctis were pulling their doors open. “Before the end, thereʼs something Iʼve got to get off my chest.” 

Everyone stopped on sight, all of them whirling to Gladio in recognition of that little game they played the night it all started. Before he got to say anything, Echidna had appeared and attacked them. 

Now that she was finally gone for good, Gladio had found his chance. “Iʼm only as strong as I am ‘cause of you guys,” he revealed. 

Slow smiles spread on each of their faces. Prompto was the first one to break it with a hoot, and a little punch of his fist. 

“Now _thatʼs_ a good one!” he said. 

“Indeed,” Ignis agreed on his way to the driverʼs seat. “I believe weʼve just been outplayed.” 

“Glad thatʼs over,” Noctis said, slipping into the backseat. 

Gladio hurried over to them, fixing the back to fit his stuff, flatten their things up a bit before he jumped next to the king while the trunk sealed itself. He opened up his arms to Noctis. 

“Hey, _hey_ , no hugging!” The younger man raised his hand up defensively, diving under it. 

“Sheesh, youʼre such a hypocrite,” Gladio teased him, aiming for his hair instead. That attempt was blocked, too. 

“Ugh, stop it!!” 

“Gladioʼs really okay now,” Prompto laughed. 

“A comforting thing,” Ignis replied, pulling his side shut. “Shall we be off, then?” 

“Yeah, before I end up shoving this guy off the car!” Noctis snapped, still hiding from his Shield. 

“Gladio, do sit properly.” 

“Yes, Mom.” Gladio was still snickering at the snarling king despite that. 

They twisted up to the road, then, and straight into the tunnel. Prompto was on his knees as soon as they had left town, going on about something he had suddenly remembered to share with Noctis. It was going to be a long trip to their next destination. 

Gladio brought out his book and opened it up to the middle where heʼd left his bookmark that promoted his favorite secondhand bookstore in Insomnia. A random choice, its rarity and nostalgia made it a precious souvenir to him now. That was the only reason he hadnʼt looked for a newer one yet. 

Until now. From the pocket of his jacket, he pulled out the photograph again and slipped it in-between the pages. Figures the only viable replacement for his old bookmark was something that held more value than it. Something that linked him not only to his past, but to his present and his future. He took his time to study the faces of his friends again, smile at some random details heʼd missed before. 

Finally, he settled comfortably in the backseat, turned the page and began to read the next chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks so much for following this fic! and now that it’s over, i can finally tell you guys that a huge inspiration of this fic was the cranberries’ _[animal instinct](https://youtu.be/ky4CdN0x58A)_ (rip dolores o’riordan 😔❤️). revealing this towards the start would have been a huge spoiler XD but yeah, thanks so much for reading! o/


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